Any Stewart’s location: When I’m out and about and need to use the bathroom I will often stop at Stewart’s, since you can use their facilities without feeling guilty about not buying anything. Every single location I’ve been in from Rensselaer to Saratoga to Albany to Schenectady counties has been yucky. More often than not, the toilet seat is left up reveling enough tiny brown hairs to make a toupee, the soap dispensers are frequently empty and the bathroom always seems to smell like dirty diapers. The one on Hoosick Street in Troy and off exit 15 in Saratoga Springs are the worst.

Christmas Tree Shops d Boscov’s in Colonie Center: Both are more rancid than a back-road gas station rest room with toilet paper on the floor; blood, urine and who knows what else on the seats, floor and sink and they’re often lacking in supplies. These two bathrooms smell so bad I gag when using them (only out of absolute necessity).

Target, Northway Mall, Colonie: No matter the time of day, the floor is wet and slippery with who knows what, there are often sanitary supplies resting on top of the toilet paper dispensers in the stalls and the sinks are typically littered with paper towels. I know the sign says those restrooms are cleaned regularly, so it must just be that the store attracts a load of nasty customers.

Crossgates Mall, across from the Gap: Not only is that hall leading to the bathroom bike path-creepy, but I never want to touch anything once in there. Diaper disposal seems to be an issue here, too.

Marshalls, Clifton Country Mall: It always spells like sulfur, the stall lock is frequently on the fritz and the hooks for your shopping bags — or handbag — is often broken.

97 Responses

About ten (or more)years ago I was in Ralphs Tavern on Madison. The pee trough (I hate those) had a big rusted hole in it and the floor below had a hole in it. Below, the street side wall had a window and during the day you could see your urine dripping down to the concrete slab below the floor you were standing on.

I agree with the one across from the Gap in Crossgates mall – the one in Colonie Center next to the Justice store is set up the similar way. Both are supposed to be family-friendly, but they are set up super creepy to walk down deserted hallways.

Ok, so I was in bathrooms at Grand Central and Madison Square Garden last week. Stewart’s isn’t looking too bad to me right now.

Ralph’s on Madison is a classic, though. Last time I was there, the whole place smelled like kielbasa. But they didn’t serve food, so one was left to believe that stank was coming from the other patrons. I used the ladies’ room, but there were no paper towels. I foolishly mentioned this to the bartender, and he let me know that the female customers kept stealing the paper towels, so the bar no longer offered them.

Crossgates Mall by the food court is absolutely disgusting every time I go in. The last time I went inside, someone had smeared feces all over the seats. I felt so sorry for the person that had to clean that — needless to say I “held it!”

I’m dating myself but I’ve never been in a bathroom as nasty as the one in the long defunct J.B. Scott’s on Central Ave. Being a guy I would go anywhere anytime but that would knock a buzzard off a dung wagon. Putting it lightly.

YUCK – I hate public restrooms but hey, they help us have nice thighs because there is no way in hell I would touch anything. I so look forward to the nicest….I happen to like the restrooms @ Saratoga National.

Most of them are nasty—but I think alot has to do with the customers using the rest rooms.
On the other hand, Grandma’s Pie Shop in Colonie, it was spotlessly cleaned and even smelled nice. Probably due to the older generation being a large portion of their customers.
Don’t just blame the messes on the stores.

hannaford in latham….the lighting is creepy, it reminds me of a scene in a horror film and i feel like i am about to be murdered in there…theres always tinkle and hair on the seats and the smell is undescribable

So this is not a retail location, however it’s public and often frequented by Siena students.

During my senior year at Siena College in the spring of 2007, I went to the Landing Zone against my better judgement. The Landing Zone makes Sadie Klutz’s and Michael’s look like Dale Miller. After years of going there because it was friendly to college kids who were not of age to drink legally, I had grown tired of going there. I was 22 at this point and pretty much fed up with the holes in the wall, the date rapist chain smoking 40 year old DJ, and above all the putrid smell of vomit and stale beer spilled everywhere. I only continued to go because I knew a bartender there and they went out of their way to make sure I was served quickly, rather than waiting 1/2 hour at times for a beer, like many of the students.

On one night in particular, the bar was more overcrowded than normal. The bathrooms are located in a narrow hallway that connects the main bar and the dance floor. It tends to be a high traffic area with lots of kids waiting in line for beer and waiting in line for the bathroom. When I finally inched my way into the men’s room, I was met by two drunk underclass females waiting to pee in the lone sink, directly adjacent to the urinal, in which one of their guy friends was peeing. Later in the night, since I had “broken the seal”, I returned to the men’s room to find that the stall toilet was kicked off its mourings and pouring water everywhere.

The next weekend, I was dragged back to “LZ” by buddies of mine looking to drink for cheap. I went to use the men’s room during the night. I was wrong to believe that the toilet would be replaced and fixed by the next weekend. In it’s place, I found a blue tupperware container; the kind a college student would pack his/her belongings in and then drag off to school with them. It was filled with pee, poop, vomit, and used toilet paper.

I never went back to the Landing Zone after that experience. I have been told by students who are still at Siena that it’s still a popular bar for some students, even though it is pretty far from campus (it’s out by Latham UPS depot). Probably because you can get in with a baseball card.

And for those of you that are wondering, the toilet has finally been replaced.

Al House, in troy. Ladies room door has large hole that has not been fixed in over 9 years. The door lock is loose plus the door does not close all the way…. Owner must not think much of ladies who go the to eat and would like a nice clean restroom..

Its not in the Capital District, but the most filthy bathroom I have EVER seen is in Penn Station in NYC. The place smells awful, half of the toilets aren’t in working order, and you can never wash your hands because the sink in occupied by homeless people trying to take a bath!

Closer to home, take a ride out to Amsterdam’s southside and visit the men’s room at Herk’s Tavern. I don’t think the place has been cleaned since 1958.

Actually most public pay toilets in Europe are quite clean because you have to pay to use them, and there is a matron who is there to clean them. I was in Italy a few months ago and every pay toliet I used was cleaner than any public toilet I’ve ever had to use in the states. I think the pay toilet is an idea the states should consider (if they’re maintained in a similar way).

I had the unfortunate occasion to once use the restroom at the deleware ave Price chopper. After trying to locate one for what seemed like forever I was directed to the upstairs area where the offices are. When I entered the one marked men, I encountered a person in a mini skirt with heels,halter top (with large clevage) and long curly hair. I politely mentioned to this “lady” that this was the mens room. HE turned around and growled “I am a man” and then with his softest voice “You can never judge a book by it’s cover though” I will never be desperate enough to use that particular restroom again ever.

A word about public bathrooms in stores: The staff also use these rooms and trust me, they are NOT the one’s making the mess. I worked for years in a big retail store. Our women’s room was thoughly cleaned, floors, walls, toilets sinks etc. before the day opened and was “retouched” about 5pm daily.
One day, when I was in the bathroom, a woman customer, seeing my “Manager” name plate complained to me about the condition of the room. It was at about noon. As we stood and spoke, a woman walked in with 2 kids. The toddler boy used a separate stall, and peed all over the floor. The mom instructed the girl to “power squat” and thus she peed all over the seat/floor. The boy then announced that he had to “go #2” and he did so without offering the courtesy of flushing. Mom didn’t clean up after either of these children. After washing their hands,they used the paper towel to open the presumeably germ covered door, and threw the paper towel on the floor as they left.
The customer who had approached me stood there with me for this entire “performance.” She immediately apologized. It is housekeeping’s job to clean the place, provide soap, towels etc. It is not their job to flush the toilets because customers don’t bother. It’s not their job to clean human waste off the floor because cutomers who make the mess couldn’t be bothered.

I think that the Friday’s in Stuyvesant Plaza has the worse ladies room in any restaurant that is not fast food. Ladies, flush the d@mn toilet, it stinks in there!

As for stores like Stewart’s etc. Such shops are understaffed and to take a clerk off the counter to send him or her into the loo to scrub the toilet makes no sense, especially if there next responsibility is making my sandwich!

I fing the Stewart’s off exit 13N has a clean restroom, as do most of the Mobil stores. Look, it’s not going to be like the ladies lounge in the diingroom of the Plaza Hotel, but I just want it not to stink and have soap and paper towels.

what the hell is it to hard to keep bathrooms clean but I know alot of gas staion bathrooms are NASTY now I wait till I either get home or go to a family members which is ever closer. Come on what is up with people peeing and shitting on the seats what the hell were you taught growing up, wasnt manners that is for sure

I carry a pocket full of alcohol wipes and go crazy with them in a public bathroom…..if it’s too nasty for the wipes, I go somewhere else.
usually a dunkin donuts will at least have decent size bathrooms, and are resonably clean,except the one on Lark st….

Not a bad article, although I’ve been in the Stewarts around town and found them not bad at all, not the greatest, but I figure if you got to go you’ll either hold your breath and go, or cross your legs and squeeze those cheeks together and find someplace else. Hey ask Kim who does the travel column about cleanliness , OMG laundry soap or a shower whats that? That area is enough to nauseate anyone.

I work at the tax dept. building 8 and for the past 3 weeks someone in this building has decided that they want to be the next Picasso and finger paint the walls or toilet paper holder with poooo…. I guess I work with a bunch of 2 and 3 years old. Oh yeah I am a female and this is in the female bathroom. I think I might just have to go in the men’s room….oh wait I looked around here and even the men are not clean…. I’ll hold it till I can bless my own throne

The men’s room at the Bullpen Bar on Caroline Street is pretty bad. It was bad when I used to hang out there in the early 00’s, and I happened to be in there a few weeks ago, and now it’s really, really, really bad.

Target in East Greenbush Women’s room. First two stalls had very dirty seats. Third seemed clean, but after using I realized there was no toilet paper. I was very surprised that according to the check off sheet behind the door, the bathroom had been cleaned an hour previously. I suspect employees just sign off on the sheet without checking stalls.

First, a related and literal “head’s” up. At last count, at the Hollywood Drive-in in Averill Park, the women patrons will overtake the men’s room (making the males wait in line). Morals of this tidbit: One, no matter how gamey it is, when its the only game in town, it will be used, and, two, if you don’t know this protocol, trust me, my son and I were told “where to go” when we went past so many women we thought were just waiting near the snack bar exit.

My other comment: Has anyone dared to check out the bathrooms at the new Albany Public library branch on Delaware Ave since it opened? It must be like the “Family Guy” episode where Chris asks Peter what libraries are for…that gets the reply, “It’s where homeless people go BM”.

Hands down the Malta Drive-In bathrooms are gross. It is a major step back in time. The lighting is poor so it is kind of dark and creepy in the bathrooms. And the toilet paper isn’t even the stuff on roll.

I agree with poster #41. Penn Station takes the cake for the worst crapper I have ever seen.
Saratoga Winners was pretty nasty back in the day as is any Xgrates Mall bathroom, especially the one across from Houlihans. I just love a bathroom stall so tiny I end up brushing up against the toidy.

@30 if you think their bathrooms are nasty, you should see how they treat the food in the dead of summer … with flys landing on it. i used to know some people that work there … and i would never eat there.

Ugh… the men’s bathroom at Northern Lights. I know mens rooms are notoriously nasty, but the one at Northern Lights takes the cake. The floors are always disgusting, the toilets leak, the doors on the stalls don’t work, there’s a pee trough… nothing good about it at all.

I’m on the road quite a bit for work. So when I need to use a clean bathroom I will try and find a Lowes. Everyone I have been is really big and very clean. Plenty os stalls and urinals. You really should try them out, :)

I’m sure it isn’t as dirty as most of the ones listed, but it is shocking because of where it is: the women’s bathroom on the second floor of Albany Med’s Child’s Hospital campus. It’s modern, but often disgusting, reminds me of a hallway bathroom in a college dorm. You can tell it gets cleaned regularly, but the patients/visitors who go there must be slobs. I’ve been there many times in the past year, and 9/10 times it is nasty, even in the morning.

I have to use Greyhound buses for a lot of business travel and Albany bus station’s ladies room gets my vote for horrific restrooms. It’s ramshackle and absolutely vile. Pretty much the worst I’ve experienced in this area. The worst I’ve ever encountered, though, was the Washington, D.C. bus station. The smell was so bad that I walked right out and waited until I could get to a coffee shop to use a bathroom.

@ #39: I went to Siena and I remember those Landing Zone bathrooms too. Speaking for the women’s room, I can say that there is never any toilet paper, so the toilets get clogged with paper towels (if those are available, which is a big if). Then the toilets won’t flush, so they overflow. So then, because everyone is drunk and doesn’t care, girls start peeing in the sink. Alternatively, people go outside to the back of the bar to pee in the woods. I have even seen one girl drop her pants and pee at the bar on the floor. Yes, you read that right. LZ is the classic hole-in-the-wall dive bar, but I have to admit, I had some good times there despite the bathroom situation.

#17
Best bathrooms (and really, this isn’t a compliment) in Crossgates,
– Both Pottery Barn & Pottery Barn Kids.
– The bathrooms on the 3rd floor near security and old theater. They’re old and outdated, but rarely used and pretty clean. Although now I’m wondering if I should really be sharing this “hidden” bathroom..
– Houlihan’s (I love that they play music in the bathroom, I hate listening to other people’s bathroom sounds.)

Ocean State Job Lot at Crosstown Plaza in Schenectady. The bathroom was filthy; the stench made me want to vomit on the spot. There were brown/yellowish spots on the toilet seat and the floor….OMW, the floor…is another story altogether!

Next time, I will be bringing my own potty rather than be in poop hell!

While not technically a bathroom, the elevators in the Sheridon Hollow garage behind the NYS Education Department should qualify! They are mobile port-a-pottys for the various derelicts that hang around the garage. I’ve been to Penn station and these are as bad, especially when the sun heats up the glass walls! EWWWWWW!

the woman’s room at simply fish and jazzy in Albany on so pearl street is totally disgusting. Bathrooms in Friendly’s on Altamont ave in Rotterdam is nasty as well, I find the whole restaurant nasty and have tried to stop going but my daughter loves the place looking for a cleaner one.

Thanks for the best bathrooms in Crossgates- it never dawned on me that PB has a bathroom!

This whole post w/comments is so funny…I just got an image of a woman crossing the Crosstown Plaza parking lot with one of those small portable potties swinging from one hand. Grossly funny. Or funnily gross. And the ones that are absolutely disgusting (um, Ralph’s anyone?), well, reading them was like watching a trainwreck…

Can I just say that half the problems with one-hole and ladies bathrooms is the hovering thing? It’s like “how big a crap can one person take it is just below the rim”? Then of course your aim is worse than in any man with one eye. If you can’t sit don’t spit.

My vote goes to the SPAC bathrooms, lines longer than at the ticket window and half the men’s room is confiscated by a couple of burly female guards who don’t feel like waiting in the ladies room line (which is two or three times as long as the mens). Here’s a tip, if you know you are going to a venue where you will be there for quite a while, take a crap at home first.

My bathroom is disgusting; the floor is full of pee, there are dirty towels everywehere. There is shaving creme on the mirror and mod on the shower tiles…and there is semen in the shower drain. someone needs to come over and clean this thing very thoroughly.

Back in the day, young and clueless, my friends and I took a college trip to NYC. We just hopped the subways without a care in the world nor a clue where we were going. We need to take care of business and hopped off at the next stop.

What we found was dark, dirty and violent. At the bathroom door was a elderly business man holding a hankerchief to his bloody nose reporting his recent mugging to the nice police man.

As we left the building I just happened to look back and spotted the “Port Authority Bus Terminal” sign. I’ll never forget it…